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XIV) Crescent Moon
My dear readers, we finally reached the last Chapter of "The Bane of Rome returns". We are only one province away from reaching our goal - establishing Tunisia in it's old borders of ancient times - before the Romans began to mess up Europe. So let us not waste any time and jump right back into the fray!
The year 1618 continues to bring us bad events. First Negev converts to Shia - but thanks to our Humanist Ideas this does not concern us very much right now, our Religious Unity does not sink any further. Worse are the news we get from France in August: They called for a Second Crusade against us (not that we saw many Crusaders up until now...), giving our Catholic enemies a big morale boost when fighting our soldiers.
Well, we can do nothing here. What we CAN do, though, is increase our own fighting capabilities. Our Cavalry is the strongest in the world right now and we further increase our strength - adding more "horse powers" - by improving our Military Ideas. Our Flintlock Muskets increase....the Shock strength of our Cavallerists? Seriously, Paradox??? Who the heck proofreads such things?
In November, still 1618, we ally Hungary. To be cannon fooder, actually. If we ever need to fight Austria or France (especially France!) they should buy us some time to organize our army and begin a Naval Invasion of France while their troops are far away. And since we still have some Diplomatic slot to spare...
In January 1619 we see that Portugal attacked Sind and is currently fighting good old Timur. We begin to see a chance of finally fighting Iberia in separate wars, so we increase our relation with Timmy to Enforce Peace on Portugal - who are fighting Timur all alone without any allies to help them. This won't be our next war, though. In March Hedjaz attacks Qara (who were pounded by Otto and Russia so hard that their survival alone is more than they could have hoped for). We don't want to lose a trusty ally so we accept. Hedjaz is more than capable enough to fight this war alone, though.
By February 1620 we can finally attack Portugal (we had to reforge a claim on Fez, too, since we lost it...). 50,000 men are standing in Iberia, two thirds of our army. This should be over fast - we already beat them a few years ago, now they also fight Timur. What could go wrong there?
Our army marches into Alentejo right away - we keep our army together to prevent Portugal from trying anything funny. At the same time our Pirate Fleet near Morocco lures in a Portuguese fleet, stalling them long enough for our main fleet to arrive. We stopped losing Naval Battles a long time ago and we surely won't start doing so right now.
At the same time we see 23,000 Portuguese soldiers with a mediocre general going towards Granada through Spain. That gives us an idea: We split our army in half and send 25,000 men towards Algarve. When the Portuguese army arrives they will get terrain penalties and we will then get our forces from Alejento to fall them into their backs, thus ending the war in no time. Great idea. Not so great, though, that our dispatched army has no General and the enemy gets no penalties. Or that the Portuguese have much more morale, thanks to being lucky and the Crusade. Or that a second army led by a much stronger General is right behind the first army, outside of our sight. When we realize the danger of the situation it's already too late - the reinforcements of Alejento arrive exactly on the same day (May 22nd) that the first 25,000 men rout. Of course the enemy follows them right away - we disband them before the enemy army catches up. In total we lost 50,000 men due to a single battle only three months after the war began!
In short: Three months after we picked a fight with Portugal our army lost 2/3 of our men, we see no realistic chance to beat them in the field (thanks to their superior general and 43,000 men under their flag) and rebuilding our army will cost us a fortune, denting our manpower pool. What is the most reasonable thing to do? Of course: A declaration of war against Spain! We try something different this time, though: We declare war not on Spain, not on Mali, but on Jolof. They are - you might have guessed - a protectorate. I guess there is no easier way to beat your most annoying enemies to a pulp again and again but this.
The reasons are simple: The separate declarations prevent Portugal from entering the war on Spain's side. Since we are not warleader against Portugal (Timmy is much too strong for this) the chance of gaining Fez is slim as long as we cannot contribute much against Portugal anyways. What we can do, though, is blockade Portugal - trying to get a fast peace out of them so that they can concentrate on Timur.
Our war against Spain begins like the one against Portugal - we win a Naval Battle. This time, though, we only manage to sink a Spanish trade fleet. Still better than nothing.
Then we do nothing - we have no army, after all. While our Army rebuilds and we begin to recruit Mercenaries once again we blockade Portugal with our fleet. It only takes until December 1610 to make them negotiate with us. We offer them a concession of defeat ten months after we started this disastrous war. And like we hoped they stay out of our war against Spain.
The first division of our newly-built army (25,000 men) goes for Spain's islands in Western Africa, But we know that we need at least double the number of men to fight Spain's army - they are around the same size and power as Portugal's army is. Both armies are without Flintlocks - but they have around 6 morale while we only have 4. We need to drag them into defensive fights where they lose many men and to reinforce our army in time to prevent routs - just like during the last war. But first things first: Emperor Muhamad gets a son called Muhammad. Not the most creative name and not the best Prince ever - but it will prevent Otto from taking our throne (we share a dynasty by now!), so we are content. By now we are already in September 1621.
What else can we do? First we set a focus for the first time of our campaign - we choose the Military Focus, of course. Coupled with our +3 Commandant this gives us 13 military points per month - enough to finally choose a military idea while keeping up with the Military technology at the same time. At the same time we watch the Spanish Army while they seige our Iberian holdings. They seem to have 48,000 men - led by a 2-star general. In January 1622 we begin to seige Jolof to increase our warscore. In March 1622 we curtail privateers who won't listen to our orders - +15% BROT is always a nice choice. And in June 1622 we finally have enough points to invest into a military idea. We should have taken Aristocratic to make our Cavalry even deadlier. Or Quality to give our army an immediate boost. Maybe even Quantity to increase the number of soldiers we can throw at the enemy. But we take the only Idea group without any direct benefits...
...since we need to recruit a new General to profit. Epic idiocy.
One month later we get great news from the Ivory Coast: The Sultan sends half of his harem, thus finishing the colony and increasing the number of recruits (better: future amount of babies "dying" to fight for the sultan) we get from the province.
Even better: Our second army is finally finished. We decide to transport the army to Western Africa and to drop if off in Caditz (in August 1622) thanks to the short naval route. All in all we ferry 50,000 men over to Spain. Their 48,000 men engage us at once. Unsurprisingly we lose against them. And our losses are horrible - not even 7,000 Spaniards fall while more than 14,000 men lose their life. But we have the money to pay the mercenaries AND the numbers to field regular soldiers, too. All goes according to plan.
But our General is too weak. The Sultan decides to raise war taxs for the first time in many years and to take things into his own hands. He is a Master leader of the Horse while the Spanish General Lope Gomez is an Artillery leader. Thus most of our soldiers die in the Spanish bombardement while their soldiers get mauled by our Cavalry charges. But the numbers begin to turn in our favour while we continue to raise and ferry troops. In the Battle of Murcia (September) this won't help us immediately. But the losses are more even right now; 10,000 Spanish Musketeers die while we lose 5,600 Infanterists and half of our Cavalry. - 8,100 men in total.
The next battle takes place in October. Spain attacks our fortified troops in Almeira. And we would nearly have lost the battle - most of our troops lost their will to fight. But a great Cavalry charge led by our Sultan himself managed to break the frontline of the Iberians and killed 54 soldiers loading the Spanish cannons. In fear of losing all of their cannons (of which Spain has surprisingly few) Spain begins to retreat. A few thousand soldiers and Cavallerists die trying to protect the cannons while retreating. 8,600 Spanish soldiers die while only 3,500 Tunisians are unable to continue fighting. Now the Spanish army lost most of their strength and morale.
And the Sultan gives chase. Reinforced by 10,000 footsoldiers and a regiment of cannons he follows Spain's army towards Barcelona. The fresh troops storm the enemy lines. The enemy routs. Now only 21,000 men remain on their side
Unfortunately Spain is not down, either. They had already begun to rebuild their army and hired Mercenaries, too. The Sultan tried to chase Spain's troops for a while - but they were too fast and evaded him every time. So he went for the province of Alicante instead - the hidden wargoal and the last of the old lands of Carthage. The province falls around July. Meanwhile the Spanish had managed to gather 44,000 men in Murcia. Reinforced with another battalion of men, numbering 59,000 soldiers, the Sultan decides to attack them to decide the war once and for all. It is obvious that he had not learned from the Portuguese campaign...This time 14,000 Tunisians fall while Spain has to bury 14,700 soldiers as well.
But Tunisia's army is more demoralized than Spain. Or to put it in another way: The victory gives Spain new hope, they begin to dominate the battles from now on. In March 1624 an army of 35,000 Spanish soldiers attack 46,000 Tunisians seiging Jaen, killing nearly 9,000 soldiers while losing 10,500 men. Tunisia's army retreats towards Granada while Spain's army begins to seige Almeira.
In July 1624 bad news come from France: They announce an alliance with Spain. This makes it obvious that Alicante has to switch ownership during this war or never. So it's bad news that Spain has already retaken it through an assault in May...
In September 1624 Spain attacks us in Granada. Our 41,000 men have to fight 39,000 men from Spain. Even though they lose 12,000 men by assaulting our fortifications they make our armies retreat once again. 7,700 Tunisians die during the battle. By now our finances went down to merely 74 ducats and our manpower pool went down to 36,700 men. Meanwhile 6,000 men get ferried over to Spain while our 19,000 men from Jolof march towards Morocco to join the European forces.
In December 1624 we lose our last and deciding battle. In Caditz - where our war against Spain began - 36,500 Spanish soldiers attack our army of 42,700 men still led by the Sultan himself. And after quite a long time we lose more men than Spain - 11,000 to 9,000. The problem is: Spain is exhausted, they lost half of their footsoldiers - most of their army that was left behind consisted of cannons. And since they had no men left to protect the cannons these cannons which had brought them to these victories had become useless all of a sudden. Their army was bled dry - unable to continue fighting. Tunisia's army, after this Phyrric victory of Spain, now had no Spanish opposition left to fear. Victory was inevitable
Thus our Tunisian army ignored the Spanish one and went for Alicante right away. The city surrendered after mere days. Meanwhile the Spanish army, reinforced with even more costly mercenaries, couldn't do anything - the army of Jolof had arrived, bringing 19,000 fresh and highly spirited soldiers plus four mercenary regiments towards Europe, shielding the battered main army from the Spanish forces. They could only watch the fall of Alicante from far away.
This was too much for the Spanish Emperor. Seeing that we have already recruited another 10,000 soldiers while smaller armies had begun to raid the Spanish homelands made him realize that resistance is futile. And thus the war was over. This is the resulting peace:
This ends our Campaign. With Alicante under Tunisia's control we managed to unlock the "Sons of Carthage" Achievment. This was unlocked on October 27th 2014, many weeks ago and still under 1.7.3. Unfortunately we missed a few goals - Iberia still has African provinces (for example Fez), Rome is not ours (but at least not controlled by the Pope, either) and Portugal still exists. But I didn't have more time then and there, I was kind of unlucky (Portugal turning towards Morocco, Iberia united and allied to France, Naples allied to France in regards of Rome) and I did horrible mistakes. Nonetheless I present you a successful Achievment run as Carthage. I hope that you, the readers, had fun and that you will accompany me in my next AAR that will take place in Baluchistan.
I will post one or two Epilogue chapters as well as a "1.9." chapter, showing what happens/changes when I convert the savegame. If you want to see something special in the Epilogue please tell me, since converting the save game will make it impossible to do any more 1.7.3 screenshots.
My dear readers, we finally reached the last Chapter of "The Bane of Rome returns". We are only one province away from reaching our goal - establishing Tunisia in it's old borders of ancient times - before the Romans began to mess up Europe. So let us not waste any time and jump right back into the fray!
The year 1618 continues to bring us bad events. First Negev converts to Shia - but thanks to our Humanist Ideas this does not concern us very much right now, our Religious Unity does not sink any further. Worse are the news we get from France in August: They called for a Second Crusade against us (not that we saw many Crusaders up until now...), giving our Catholic enemies a big morale boost when fighting our soldiers.
Well, we can do nothing here. What we CAN do, though, is increase our own fighting capabilities. Our Cavalry is the strongest in the world right now and we further increase our strength - adding more "horse powers" - by improving our Military Ideas. Our Flintlock Muskets increase....the Shock strength of our Cavallerists? Seriously, Paradox??? Who the heck proofreads such things?
In November, still 1618, we ally Hungary. To be cannon fooder, actually. If we ever need to fight Austria or France (especially France!) they should buy us some time to organize our army and begin a Naval Invasion of France while their troops are far away. And since we still have some Diplomatic slot to spare...
In January 1619 we see that Portugal attacked Sind and is currently fighting good old Timur. We begin to see a chance of finally fighting Iberia in separate wars, so we increase our relation with Timmy to Enforce Peace on Portugal - who are fighting Timur all alone without any allies to help them. This won't be our next war, though. In March Hedjaz attacks Qara (who were pounded by Otto and Russia so hard that their survival alone is more than they could have hoped for). We don't want to lose a trusty ally so we accept. Hedjaz is more than capable enough to fight this war alone, though.
By February 1620 we can finally attack Portugal (we had to reforge a claim on Fez, too, since we lost it...). 50,000 men are standing in Iberia, two thirds of our army. This should be over fast - we already beat them a few years ago, now they also fight Timur. What could go wrong there?
Our army marches into Alentejo right away - we keep our army together to prevent Portugal from trying anything funny. At the same time our Pirate Fleet near Morocco lures in a Portuguese fleet, stalling them long enough for our main fleet to arrive. We stopped losing Naval Battles a long time ago and we surely won't start doing so right now.
At the same time we see 23,000 Portuguese soldiers with a mediocre general going towards Granada through Spain. That gives us an idea: We split our army in half and send 25,000 men towards Algarve. When the Portuguese army arrives they will get terrain penalties and we will then get our forces from Alejento to fall them into their backs, thus ending the war in no time. Great idea. Not so great, though, that our dispatched army has no General and the enemy gets no penalties. Or that the Portuguese have much more morale, thanks to being lucky and the Crusade. Or that a second army led by a much stronger General is right behind the first army, outside of our sight. When we realize the danger of the situation it's already too late - the reinforcements of Alejento arrive exactly on the same day (May 22nd) that the first 25,000 men rout. Of course the enemy follows them right away - we disband them before the enemy army catches up. In total we lost 50,000 men due to a single battle only three months after the war began!
In short: Three months after we picked a fight with Portugal our army lost 2/3 of our men, we see no realistic chance to beat them in the field (thanks to their superior general and 43,000 men under their flag) and rebuilding our army will cost us a fortune, denting our manpower pool. What is the most reasonable thing to do? Of course: A declaration of war against Spain! We try something different this time, though: We declare war not on Spain, not on Mali, but on Jolof. They are - you might have guessed - a protectorate. I guess there is no easier way to beat your most annoying enemies to a pulp again and again but this.
The reasons are simple: The separate declarations prevent Portugal from entering the war on Spain's side. Since we are not warleader against Portugal (Timmy is much too strong for this) the chance of gaining Fez is slim as long as we cannot contribute much against Portugal anyways. What we can do, though, is blockade Portugal - trying to get a fast peace out of them so that they can concentrate on Timur.
Our war against Spain begins like the one against Portugal - we win a Naval Battle. This time, though, we only manage to sink a Spanish trade fleet. Still better than nothing.
Then we do nothing - we have no army, after all. While our Army rebuilds and we begin to recruit Mercenaries once again we blockade Portugal with our fleet. It only takes until December 1610 to make them negotiate with us. We offer them a concession of defeat ten months after we started this disastrous war. And like we hoped they stay out of our war against Spain.
The first division of our newly-built army (25,000 men) goes for Spain's islands in Western Africa, But we know that we need at least double the number of men to fight Spain's army - they are around the same size and power as Portugal's army is. Both armies are without Flintlocks - but they have around 6 morale while we only have 4. We need to drag them into defensive fights where they lose many men and to reinforce our army in time to prevent routs - just like during the last war. But first things first: Emperor Muhamad gets a son called Muhammad. Not the most creative name and not the best Prince ever - but it will prevent Otto from taking our throne (we share a dynasty by now!), so we are content. By now we are already in September 1621.
What else can we do? First we set a focus for the first time of our campaign - we choose the Military Focus, of course. Coupled with our +3 Commandant this gives us 13 military points per month - enough to finally choose a military idea while keeping up with the Military technology at the same time. At the same time we watch the Spanish Army while they seige our Iberian holdings. They seem to have 48,000 men - led by a 2-star general. In January 1622 we begin to seige Jolof to increase our warscore. In March 1622 we curtail privateers who won't listen to our orders - +15% BROT is always a nice choice. And in June 1622 we finally have enough points to invest into a military idea. We should have taken Aristocratic to make our Cavalry even deadlier. Or Quality to give our army an immediate boost. Maybe even Quantity to increase the number of soldiers we can throw at the enemy. But we take the only Idea group without any direct benefits...
...since we need to recruit a new General to profit. Epic idiocy.
One month later we get great news from the Ivory Coast: The Sultan sends half of his harem, thus finishing the colony and increasing the number of recruits (better: future amount of babies "dying" to fight for the sultan) we get from the province.
Even better: Our second army is finally finished. We decide to transport the army to Western Africa and to drop if off in Caditz (in August 1622) thanks to the short naval route. All in all we ferry 50,000 men over to Spain. Their 48,000 men engage us at once. Unsurprisingly we lose against them. And our losses are horrible - not even 7,000 Spaniards fall while more than 14,000 men lose their life. But we have the money to pay the mercenaries AND the numbers to field regular soldiers, too. All goes according to plan.
But our General is too weak. The Sultan decides to raise war taxs for the first time in many years and to take things into his own hands. He is a Master leader of the Horse while the Spanish General Lope Gomez is an Artillery leader. Thus most of our soldiers die in the Spanish bombardement while their soldiers get mauled by our Cavalry charges. But the numbers begin to turn in our favour while we continue to raise and ferry troops. In the Battle of Murcia (September) this won't help us immediately. But the losses are more even right now; 10,000 Spanish Musketeers die while we lose 5,600 Infanterists and half of our Cavalry. - 8,100 men in total.
The next battle takes place in October. Spain attacks our fortified troops in Almeira. And we would nearly have lost the battle - most of our troops lost their will to fight. But a great Cavalry charge led by our Sultan himself managed to break the frontline of the Iberians and killed 54 soldiers loading the Spanish cannons. In fear of losing all of their cannons (of which Spain has surprisingly few) Spain begins to retreat. A few thousand soldiers and Cavallerists die trying to protect the cannons while retreating. 8,600 Spanish soldiers die while only 3,500 Tunisians are unable to continue fighting. Now the Spanish army lost most of their strength and morale.
And the Sultan gives chase. Reinforced by 10,000 footsoldiers and a regiment of cannons he follows Spain's army towards Barcelona. The fresh troops storm the enemy lines. The enemy routs. Now only 21,000 men remain on their side
Unfortunately Spain is not down, either. They had already begun to rebuild their army and hired Mercenaries, too. The Sultan tried to chase Spain's troops for a while - but they were too fast and evaded him every time. So he went for the province of Alicante instead - the hidden wargoal and the last of the old lands of Carthage. The province falls around July. Meanwhile the Spanish had managed to gather 44,000 men in Murcia. Reinforced with another battalion of men, numbering 59,000 soldiers, the Sultan decides to attack them to decide the war once and for all. It is obvious that he had not learned from the Portuguese campaign...This time 14,000 Tunisians fall while Spain has to bury 14,700 soldiers as well.
But Tunisia's army is more demoralized than Spain. Or to put it in another way: The victory gives Spain new hope, they begin to dominate the battles from now on. In March 1624 an army of 35,000 Spanish soldiers attack 46,000 Tunisians seiging Jaen, killing nearly 9,000 soldiers while losing 10,500 men. Tunisia's army retreats towards Granada while Spain's army begins to seige Almeira.
In July 1624 bad news come from France: They announce an alliance with Spain. This makes it obvious that Alicante has to switch ownership during this war or never. So it's bad news that Spain has already retaken it through an assault in May...
In September 1624 Spain attacks us in Granada. Our 41,000 men have to fight 39,000 men from Spain. Even though they lose 12,000 men by assaulting our fortifications they make our armies retreat once again. 7,700 Tunisians die during the battle. By now our finances went down to merely 74 ducats and our manpower pool went down to 36,700 men. Meanwhile 6,000 men get ferried over to Spain while our 19,000 men from Jolof march towards Morocco to join the European forces.
In December 1624 we lose our last and deciding battle. In Caditz - where our war against Spain began - 36,500 Spanish soldiers attack our army of 42,700 men still led by the Sultan himself. And after quite a long time we lose more men than Spain - 11,000 to 9,000. The problem is: Spain is exhausted, they lost half of their footsoldiers - most of their army that was left behind consisted of cannons. And since they had no men left to protect the cannons these cannons which had brought them to these victories had become useless all of a sudden. Their army was bled dry - unable to continue fighting. Tunisia's army, after this Phyrric victory of Spain, now had no Spanish opposition left to fear. Victory was inevitable
Thus our Tunisian army ignored the Spanish one and went for Alicante right away. The city surrendered after mere days. Meanwhile the Spanish army, reinforced with even more costly mercenaries, couldn't do anything - the army of Jolof had arrived, bringing 19,000 fresh and highly spirited soldiers plus four mercenary regiments towards Europe, shielding the battered main army from the Spanish forces. They could only watch the fall of Alicante from far away.
This was too much for the Spanish Emperor. Seeing that we have already recruited another 10,000 soldiers while smaller armies had begun to raid the Spanish homelands made him realize that resistance is futile. And thus the war was over. This is the resulting peace:
This ends our Campaign. With Alicante under Tunisia's control we managed to unlock the "Sons of Carthage" Achievment. This was unlocked on October 27th 2014, many weeks ago and still under 1.7.3. Unfortunately we missed a few goals - Iberia still has African provinces (for example Fez), Rome is not ours (but at least not controlled by the Pope, either) and Portugal still exists. But I didn't have more time then and there, I was kind of unlucky (Portugal turning towards Morocco, Iberia united and allied to France, Naples allied to France in regards of Rome) and I did horrible mistakes. Nonetheless I present you a successful Achievment run as Carthage. I hope that you, the readers, had fun and that you will accompany me in my next AAR that will take place in Baluchistan.
I will post one or two Epilogue chapters as well as a "1.9." chapter, showing what happens/changes when I convert the savegame. If you want to see something special in the Epilogue please tell me, since converting the save game will make it impossible to do any more 1.7.3 screenshots.
The Western Med looks so beautiful, except for the encircled mess of green in Morocco! 
Congratulations LanMisa, on doing something that took me nearly 4 years to do for one of my AARs, actually finish it! Well, excluding the epilogue and all! Baluchistan (and the Mughals) are beckoning!
Congratulations LanMisa, on doing something that took me nearly 4 years to do for one of my AARs, actually finish it! Well, excluding the epilogue and all!
Baluchistan (and the Mughals) are beckoning!
Conglatulation! You are winner!
Tunesia now have peace.
Try another quest in different land.
THE END
Tunesia now have peace.
Try another quest in different land.
THE END
The Western Med looks so beautiful, except for the encircled mess of green in Morocco!
Congratulations LanMisa, on doing something that took me nearly 4 years to do for one of my AARs, actually finish it! Well, excluding the epilogue and all!
It's not about the quota, but about the quality. Just look at Svip's (rightfully earned!) popularity - as far as I know he never finished a single AAR (or at least not a longer campaign) yet still he has won aarward after aarward. While I doubt to get even a single nomination for the Q4 awards (which would still be justified with all these excellent AAR's out there, but...). The only thing that I seem able to offer is the quantity, not much else. I really hope that the exotic location of Baluchistan can attract a few more viewers. But this is exactly what I thought about Tunisia, too. We will see.
The end is always the beginning of something new. Still, thank you. With more time I would have been able to do much more, but with the clock ticking I did some bad moves and totally concentrated on Spain in the end. I missed, for example, my chance to vassalize Hedjaz (by declaring on their protectorate before their Timur alliance). Or my chance to go for Rome since I was fighting Iberia at the very moment Naples declared on them.
A) Tunisia - an Empire under the Sun
Once again we return to the lands of Carthage that were finally reunited under Muhammad IV. This time we want to take a look of the world that we left behind. But before we come to that we need to cover a few more events - since I did not end the game on the day the achievement was, well, achieved. So let us look at what happened during the next few years first, shall we?
We managed to beat Spain in 1625, taking two provinces in Africa (one Spanish colony, one province of Jolof) and a final one in Iberia to give us the achievement. This gives us so much trade power in Seville that even though we still privateer Spain AND Portugal there it is the most lucrative trade node that we can reach right now. Thus in March 1626 we move our trade port towards Tangiers, increasing our trade income to roughly 42 Ducats. Even the answer to the most important question in the Universe is now in our hands!
In July 1627 a random events gives us decreased military tech costs. One year later we profit from a shady offer - +10% spy strength - and suffer from a rogue Privateer - minus 15% trade income. Also, in September 1628, Sultan Muhammad dies, the last of the Sith Emperors of Carthage. Unfortunately his son (Muhammad, duh!) is only 6 years old and thus too young to learn the dark ways from his father.
What's even worse is that the Regency Council has a whooping 0/0/3. Well, that ends our time with good or passable Sultans. Our 2/2/3 advisors and the Power Projection bonus can help us for a while. In August 1629 we prove this to be true by inventing Carbines. And for once new rifles improve our soldiers and not our pistol-wearing Cavalry. Bravo, Paradox!
In February 1630 we gain a perfect chance to finish Spain once and for all - France breaks their alliance with them. The reason is a French claim in Aragón. If we attacked right now France would probably have joined in a separate war. But we cannot. Instead we join Otto in their quest for Coffee - no, it was Kaffa. We hope to clash with the Hanseatic Navy to see how good our own can fight - but they refuse to join (or send ships, I don't remember).
We send troops over to Anatolia to march against our foes (since this time we REALLY have nothing else to do with them). And we can't land in Modena because of the Austrian army there. But we take our time. First we increase the amount of knowledge in our realm. In February 1631 we discover the technology to build Moon Destroyers of the War Galleon class - it improves the morale of all Tunisian sailors as well. In December 1631 we discover the technology to build Textile Manufactories - but we don't have the money to do so right now. And in March 1632 we discover the Superior Firepower Doctrine, giving our Generals a better idea on how to lead our glorious armies. After this our armies begin to march into Austrian lands - to be exact, they march towards Parma, the new home of the Pope. And this concludes our little Epilogue, since this game ends on January 1st 1633. Around 188 years after we started it.
Now let us have a look at what the world has become. We start with a look at the whole world - or the parts of the world that we know of.
We might not look as big as Russia does, but we control vast amounts of Africa. In a Vicky II conversion we might be able to get all of Africa for ourselves. On the other hand, we control not much else - but we would have MUCH time left to change that. But let us return to the world. We start in North America:
I guess the strangest thing is that Spain does not try to colonize Newfoundland - like they supposedly do in most games. Instead England went for it. France went for Northern Mexico, Spain for both coasts. Both Iroquois and Creek as big native nations stand unopposed by the colonizers - yet. But we also have two rare guests: Holland, being the Netherlands of this game, colonized Florida and some provinces in the north. And even Denmark has some provinces in Canada! But they are too few to found a Colonial nation. And it's unlikely that they will get enough provinces to do so any time later.
Let's go down to Central America. We can see three Mexicos - but are missing a Spanish one, of all things! Our constant wars against them might or might not have something to do with it. The Carribean is, once again, dominated by Hollandish Cuba. Spain and Portugal divided the other Islands mostly between themselves with France, GB and Holland both picking one for themselves, too.
There is not much to say about South America. Portugal and Brazil changed their Colonial Foci with Spain colonizing Brazil, Portugal everything else. The Inca are about to die soon. And the small British colony looks quite lonely.
Now to the good part: Africa. Tunisia rulez here. But unfortunately we couldn't keep the Continent for ourselves. Both France and Great Britain managed to sneak in some colonies in Central Africa, Spain has three on the continent and one island (yellow circle). Everything in green circles is Portuguese. Madagascar looks like a strange flag, divided by the Red, Green and Blue. Everything in the Brownish Circles belongs to us. Not many nations remain for us to conquer. And therein lies a problem: We already have a strong inflation thanks to our gold mines. Now both Ethiopia and Kilwa have even more from them - so we can't really afford to integrate them into our Africa. And the rest of them are dirt poor. On the other hand we wouldn't want to give even more influence to the other Western nations...difficult choices. If we were to continue.
Next is Europe. France looks more or less contained, they still didn't get their last province back from England. By now they lost their core. Spain, of course, lost many valuable Southern provinces due to aggressive Oversea neighbours. Naples, allied with France, could very well unite Italy in another 50 years. Genoa still holds onto their Crimean provinces - but this is a matter of ending the war. The HRE is highly unified. Lithuania is a thing of the past, instead Chibi Ukraine took its place. Both Orders thrive but neither of them managed to reform their country. Why the Litvonian Order didn't take Riga I don't know; the Teutonic Order just never changed its religion and is still Catholic. Personally I like the fact that Saxony's still around and even took a province from Bohemia. Sweden, by the way, currently gets smashed by Russia. The Pope emigrated towards Pisa and thus joined the HRE. Speaking of the HRE, I will add two more screenshots of its borders and its current status.
Now towards a region that really interests us. Arabia would be a great region for us to conquer. I actually had many plans - to attack Hedjaz' protectorate Adal, for example, and to force-vassalize our long-time ally. Unfortunately they allied themselves with Timur while we were distracted in Iberia. Even though Timur is still a horde fighting their masses is not what we really want. We cannot attack Ethiopia, either. They became a Protectorate of Oman who are allied with Otto, of course. And they are too strong for us to beat. Nor do we want to beat them anyway. Did I mention that Timur and Otto are allies, too? So if we attack Adal, for example, Haasa takes over and Timur takes over for them too...well, do the math. Qara is barely alive and won't see the next century. Persia revolted but I see dark times ahead for them, too.
Down to India! There an epic struggle between Timur's Hordes and Hindustan takes place. They are quite evenly matched, both able to bring numbers into battles that match ours. Hindustan has better technology, but Timur has the numbers and reserves so they used to win most wars. This will surely change with their Horde units not getting better - left alone, Hindustan should be able to conquer all of India by 1800, at least. Tibet is alive, but not much else. Oirat is the only Central Asian Horde left. Most likely Russia will kill them shortly, with their basically worthless lands being low basetax and all.
Go Indonesia, my favourite region. Especially Lan Xang who completely control Indochina! Shan is quite strong as well. As far as I can see only Dai Viet and Makassar are One-Province Minors. What surprises me is that Ayutthaya was completely removed from the map - they tend to overpower the region 9 out of 10 times. Brunei, as usual, began to colonize. Only France and Portugal managed to get one Colony in each as far as I can see - the French one is currently occupied by Majapahit. Taiwan is still uncolonzed - the one province I tend to take during every single game. But not this time.
Last but not least we have Japan. They managed to form but don't seem to have colonists. Or they can't afford them. So Portugal managed to snatch Hokkaido away while Russia took Sachalin and the Kurils. At least they conquered Okinawa. Korea managed to take the Eastern Manchu lands while the Oirat took the rest. China was left out because nothing happened - they still control their starting provinces and nothing more, nothing less.
And this is all for now. At least in regards of maps. The next time we will look at more data like our position in the world, our manpower, our military...and things like that. As I said before, if you want to see something special, just ask. If you want a look at a certain country - sure, why not?
But before you go I have one thing left to tell you - the reason I quit right there and did not use the time I had (or why I don't continue post-patch) to expand even further. I already told you that my ways of Expansion in Arabia are nonexistant. Africa has no interesting nations to conquer (with less inflation I'd go for Kilwa, but...). India is very centralized - there is no easy way in, with both Hindustan and Timur around. And I don't want to attack European powers. England, of course, because of their fleet (that you will see next time). France because of their army. And everyone else...because they are Catholic (and Overseas, but that's not the point here). To show you what I mean please take a look at a fight between Austria and me. Austria is not a strong militaristic nation, they don't have taken any military ideas that I know of. And still we cannot beat them. Just like Spain and Portugal they have the "Crusade" bonus against me. That results in these numbers:
The first time I lost that battle. I killed 23,000 men while only losing 12,000 against a much better General (lucky AI) due to much better troops before I fled. Unfortunately towards the neighbouring province. There I was routed. And quit without saving.
Now I would have to wait:
- until FOREVER to fight France and England (or: three Military Ideas for France, 2000 Ducats invested into the fleet for GB and propably much more post-patch)
- until 1650 to fight ANYTHING ELSE in Europe (Only Sweden and GB are Protestant, nothing important is reformed)
- until I get Economic Ideas to fight Kilwa
- until many Alliances break before I can fight in Arabia
And Africa is, I said so already, mostly useless and lowest basetax. So now you should understand why this game is over, right? There is no reasonable way to expand. And since EU IV is the Expansion game this means goodbye.
Once again we return to the lands of Carthage that were finally reunited under Muhammad IV. This time we want to take a look of the world that we left behind. But before we come to that we need to cover a few more events - since I did not end the game on the day the achievement was, well, achieved. So let us look at what happened during the next few years first, shall we?
We managed to beat Spain in 1625, taking two provinces in Africa (one Spanish colony, one province of Jolof) and a final one in Iberia to give us the achievement. This gives us so much trade power in Seville that even though we still privateer Spain AND Portugal there it is the most lucrative trade node that we can reach right now. Thus in March 1626 we move our trade port towards Tangiers, increasing our trade income to roughly 42 Ducats. Even the answer to the most important question in the Universe is now in our hands!
In July 1627 a random events gives us decreased military tech costs. One year later we profit from a shady offer - +10% spy strength - and suffer from a rogue Privateer - minus 15% trade income. Also, in September 1628, Sultan Muhammad dies, the last of the Sith Emperors of Carthage. Unfortunately his son (Muhammad, duh!) is only 6 years old and thus too young to learn the dark ways from his father.
What's even worse is that the Regency Council has a whooping 0/0/3. Well, that ends our time with good or passable Sultans. Our 2/2/3 advisors and the Power Projection bonus can help us for a while. In August 1629 we prove this to be true by inventing Carbines. And for once new rifles improve our soldiers and not our pistol-wearing Cavalry. Bravo, Paradox!
In February 1630 we gain a perfect chance to finish Spain once and for all - France breaks their alliance with them. The reason is a French claim in Aragón. If we attacked right now France would probably have joined in a separate war. But we cannot. Instead we join Otto in their quest for Coffee - no, it was Kaffa. We hope to clash with the Hanseatic Navy to see how good our own can fight - but they refuse to join (or send ships, I don't remember).
We send troops over to Anatolia to march against our foes (since this time we REALLY have nothing else to do with them). And we can't land in Modena because of the Austrian army there. But we take our time. First we increase the amount of knowledge in our realm. In February 1631 we discover the technology to build Moon Destroyers of the War Galleon class - it improves the morale of all Tunisian sailors as well. In December 1631 we discover the technology to build Textile Manufactories - but we don't have the money to do so right now. And in March 1632 we discover the Superior Firepower Doctrine, giving our Generals a better idea on how to lead our glorious armies. After this our armies begin to march into Austrian lands - to be exact, they march towards Parma, the new home of the Pope. And this concludes our little Epilogue, since this game ends on January 1st 1633. Around 188 years after we started it.
Now let us have a look at what the world has become. We start with a look at the whole world - or the parts of the world that we know of.
We might not look as big as Russia does, but we control vast amounts of Africa. In a Vicky II conversion we might be able to get all of Africa for ourselves. On the other hand, we control not much else - but we would have MUCH time left to change that. But let us return to the world. We start in North America:
I guess the strangest thing is that Spain does not try to colonize Newfoundland - like they supposedly do in most games. Instead England went for it. France went for Northern Mexico, Spain for both coasts. Both Iroquois and Creek as big native nations stand unopposed by the colonizers - yet. But we also have two rare guests: Holland, being the Netherlands of this game, colonized Florida and some provinces in the north. And even Denmark has some provinces in Canada! But they are too few to found a Colonial nation. And it's unlikely that they will get enough provinces to do so any time later.
Let's go down to Central America. We can see three Mexicos - but are missing a Spanish one, of all things! Our constant wars against them might or might not have something to do with it. The Carribean is, once again, dominated by Hollandish Cuba. Spain and Portugal divided the other Islands mostly between themselves with France, GB and Holland both picking one for themselves, too.
There is not much to say about South America. Portugal and Brazil changed their Colonial Foci with Spain colonizing Brazil, Portugal everything else. The Inca are about to die soon. And the small British colony looks quite lonely.
Now to the good part: Africa. Tunisia rulez here. But unfortunately we couldn't keep the Continent for ourselves. Both France and Great Britain managed to sneak in some colonies in Central Africa, Spain has three on the continent and one island (yellow circle). Everything in green circles is Portuguese. Madagascar looks like a strange flag, divided by the Red, Green and Blue. Everything in the Brownish Circles belongs to us. Not many nations remain for us to conquer. And therein lies a problem: We already have a strong inflation thanks to our gold mines. Now both Ethiopia and Kilwa have even more from them - so we can't really afford to integrate them into our Africa. And the rest of them are dirt poor. On the other hand we wouldn't want to give even more influence to the other Western nations...difficult choices. If we were to continue.
Next is Europe. France looks more or less contained, they still didn't get their last province back from England. By now they lost their core. Spain, of course, lost many valuable Southern provinces due to aggressive Oversea neighbours. Naples, allied with France, could very well unite Italy in another 50 years. Genoa still holds onto their Crimean provinces - but this is a matter of ending the war. The HRE is highly unified. Lithuania is a thing of the past, instead Chibi Ukraine took its place. Both Orders thrive but neither of them managed to reform their country. Why the Litvonian Order didn't take Riga I don't know; the Teutonic Order just never changed its religion and is still Catholic. Personally I like the fact that Saxony's still around and even took a province from Bohemia. Sweden, by the way, currently gets smashed by Russia. The Pope emigrated towards Pisa and thus joined the HRE. Speaking of the HRE, I will add two more screenshots of its borders and its current status.
Now towards a region that really interests us. Arabia would be a great region for us to conquer. I actually had many plans - to attack Hedjaz' protectorate Adal, for example, and to force-vassalize our long-time ally. Unfortunately they allied themselves with Timur while we were distracted in Iberia. Even though Timur is still a horde fighting their masses is not what we really want. We cannot attack Ethiopia, either. They became a Protectorate of Oman who are allied with Otto, of course. And they are too strong for us to beat. Nor do we want to beat them anyway. Did I mention that Timur and Otto are allies, too? So if we attack Adal, for example, Haasa takes over and Timur takes over for them too...well, do the math. Qara is barely alive and won't see the next century. Persia revolted but I see dark times ahead for them, too.
Down to India! There an epic struggle between Timur's Hordes and Hindustan takes place. They are quite evenly matched, both able to bring numbers into battles that match ours. Hindustan has better technology, but Timur has the numbers and reserves so they used to win most wars. This will surely change with their Horde units not getting better - left alone, Hindustan should be able to conquer all of India by 1800, at least. Tibet is alive, but not much else. Oirat is the only Central Asian Horde left. Most likely Russia will kill them shortly, with their basically worthless lands being low basetax and all.
Go Indonesia, my favourite region. Especially Lan Xang who completely control Indochina! Shan is quite strong as well. As far as I can see only Dai Viet and Makassar are One-Province Minors. What surprises me is that Ayutthaya was completely removed from the map - they tend to overpower the region 9 out of 10 times. Brunei, as usual, began to colonize. Only France and Portugal managed to get one Colony in each as far as I can see - the French one is currently occupied by Majapahit. Taiwan is still uncolonzed - the one province I tend to take during every single game. But not this time.
Last but not least we have Japan. They managed to form but don't seem to have colonists. Or they can't afford them. So Portugal managed to snatch Hokkaido away while Russia took Sachalin and the Kurils. At least they conquered Okinawa. Korea managed to take the Eastern Manchu lands while the Oirat took the rest. China was left out because nothing happened - they still control their starting provinces and nothing more, nothing less.
And this is all for now. At least in regards of maps. The next time we will look at more data like our position in the world, our manpower, our military...and things like that. As I said before, if you want to see something special, just ask. If you want a look at a certain country - sure, why not?
But before you go I have one thing left to tell you - the reason I quit right there and did not use the time I had (or why I don't continue post-patch) to expand even further. I already told you that my ways of Expansion in Arabia are nonexistant. Africa has no interesting nations to conquer (with less inflation I'd go for Kilwa, but...). India is very centralized - there is no easy way in, with both Hindustan and Timur around. And I don't want to attack European powers. England, of course, because of their fleet (that you will see next time). France because of their army. And everyone else...because they are Catholic (and Overseas, but that's not the point here). To show you what I mean please take a look at a fight between Austria and me. Austria is not a strong militaristic nation, they don't have taken any military ideas that I know of. And still we cannot beat them. Just like Spain and Portugal they have the "Crusade" bonus against me. That results in these numbers:
The first time I lost that battle. I killed 23,000 men while only losing 12,000 against a much better General (lucky AI) due to much better troops before I fled. Unfortunately towards the neighbouring province. There I was routed. And quit without saving.
Now I would have to wait:
- until FOREVER to fight France and England (or: three Military Ideas for France, 2000 Ducats invested into the fleet for GB and propably much more post-patch)
- until 1650 to fight ANYTHING ELSE in Europe (Only Sweden and GB are Protestant, nothing important is reformed)
- until I get Economic Ideas to fight Kilwa
- until many Alliances break before I can fight in Arabia
And Africa is, I said so already, mostly useless and lowest basetax. So now you should understand why this game is over, right? There is no reasonable way to expand. And since EU IV is the Expansion game this means goodbye.
Just finished reading this AAR, it's been a great read, looking forward to your next one!
Who are the Electors? I can see Magdeburg, Trier, the Palatinate, Saxony, Bohemia (who isn't voting for themselves! Never thought I'd see that. Or are they in a PU under Austria?). Is the right one Utrecht? And the other one?
Gotta love that Lan Xang. CatKnight would be pleased.
Who are the Electors? I can see Magdeburg, Trier, the Palatinate, Saxony, Bohemia (who isn't voting for themselves! Never thought I'd see that. Or are they in a PU under Austria?). Is the right one Utrecht? And the other one?
Gotta love that Lan Xang. CatKnight would be pleased.
No, Korea, no!
Well, I have seen them accomplish much more in runs from other people. But that's the way it is, no?
The Electors are: Bohemia, Cleves, Cologne, Palatinate, Saxony, Würzburg and Utrecht (from left to right). Well, Utrecht seems to have been the standard choice for Austria - this happened at least once before in my games. They are small and weak and not Italian, so that's just the way the game roles, no? Saxony, Palpatine, Bohemia and Cologne start as Electors, I am not sure about Cleves and Würzburg.
And yes, Bohemia is so small that they do not vote for themselves. What I don't get is that Saxony votes for OMP Saxony-Anhalt instead of itself - or that they didn't just gobble it up like good Saxons (or like I did during my Saxony campaign). I do not know if they are a vassal of Austria, but I don't think so. But I can't check right now.
Was LanXang CatKnoght's first "got annexed" nation? Well, they do just fine. I can't say for sure if they are to survive our next campaign, though... *insert evil laugh here*
Lan Xang was the OPM that never did anything but didn't get annexed.
Bohemia was beaten up by the Austrians I suppose. Saxony voting for an OPM? Lol.
Also in my games the Emperor always gives elector titles to random OPMs in the Netherlands or North Germany. I find it auite strange you can't give an electorate to yourself.
BTW are you stronger than the Ottos or not?
Bohemia was beaten up by the Austrians I suppose. Saxony voting for an OPM? Lol.
Also in my games the Emperor always gives elector titles to random OPMs in the Netherlands or North Germany. I find it auite strange you can't give an electorate to yourself.
BTW are you stronger than the Ottos or not?
Giving yourself an Electorate would surely anger the German Princes of the Reich. It never happened in real-life, either: After the right to vote was revoked from the Palatinate in 1623 - Bavaria got selected as the newest elector. And in Gameplay terms: It would be overpowered.
Am I stronger than Otto? That depends. They have their Lucky Nations boni (including god-tier generals), they most certainly took Military Ideas (but I don't know which), they are allied to Timur, they have their Janissaries...and I suck at warfare. Since we have much, much more money and income we could certainly beat them in an attrition war after keeping most of their army in Europe - like most Byzantium players do (or they keep them in Anatolia, depends on the strategy). We might stand a chance in a fair (= no Blockade of the Bosporus) one-on-one war if we merc up before the war and get our South African army (thank you, Portugal!) north. if we make them attack us in deserts and play the mobility card that our navy gives us as well (landing troops deep inside their territory while they take ages to traverse Africa). But it would need a better leader than myself to utterly crush them in a fair war. Not that I wanted to - they are a very valuable ally and we are at +100 trust - I can bring them into nearly any war I want right now as long as they are at peace and not horribly in debt.
B) Countries in Motion
Let us continue with our Epilogue. The last time we were mainly looking at maps of the different regions. This time we will have a look at some numbers and other graphics from our country. So that you can have a look at how good or bad Tunisia's position in the world is. This will also start a countdown (sort of): In one week (on January 5th) I will patch my save file towards 1.8 (and then 1.9) to see how much our position changes through the patch - something that really interests me. And the fact that my Campaign is already over gives us the perfect opportunity to do so. So if you have any unanswered questions left you need to ask me until that day - later I just can't load the 1.7.3 save file anymore.
Our government remains unchanged. We have a 0/0/3 regency council, military focus and 2/2/3 advisors. This gives us 5/5/12 points per month - quite bad for 1630 but still much better than we got in the beginning. So let us go over towards the Diplomacy view:
Beside the fact that we rivalled Austria there should be nothing surprising or new there. GB and Genoa embargo us but Genoa has no power and GB does not compete with us in any valuable provinces. We guarantee our allies Otto and Hedjaz. And thanks to our Exploration ideas we have a buttload of Casus Belli - most of them against small North American tribes though.
Our budget. Inflation is, like always, on the rise. We already put at least 1000 points in there to reduce it from time to time - but most likely a few 1000. Our Army budget is high because of the many reinforcements thanks to our Austrian campaign. Our income would be higher with a neutral stability and 100 Legitimacy, too (you will see this soon) and without our trade malus thanks to that Privateer event. Or it would be higher if we stopped Privateering - but the 3 Monarch Points per month are worth the money.
Our Trade income. We make a nice amount of cash. Especially Alexandria is amazing - 10 Ducats per month even though we compete with Otto in a non-trade port province. The problem is that steering the money from Alexandria towards Sevilla is nearly impossible. We would need to transfer more of the Indian trade towards South Africa and then upwards - founding the East Indian Trade Company would be a good idea for us. Our inland trade bonus is nice for transferring trade from Central Africa towards Tunis or Sevilla.
There is nothing much to say about our technology. Last chapter I showed you that we are 15/19/18, steadily catching up with Europe. Our Ideas are still Exploration/Humanism/Trade mastered and Quality at level 3. So we arrive at our Stability. Our most important rebel problems lie in Africa. Kongo is quite rebellious, especially in the not-converted provinces. What IS interesting, though, is that rebels from Wolof (what we took from Jolof) would defect to Kilwa - a nation on the other side of the continent! Kilwa, go home, you are drunk!
Our Religious tab. Since our Inquisitor died we returned to being impious(?), to make technology cheaper for us. But we accomplished to convert much. It is interesting, though, that we can't even convert the low-tax Coptic provinces in former Ethiopia. I guess, Islamic Nations without piety just suck at conversion thanks to them having no permanent +Missionary decisions, but only temporary, Ruler-based ones.
Our army and navy. Since I began to expand our army we are nearing our Force limit. 93,000 men is a neat amount, the small Force Limit (we have around the same number of provinces that we can build armies - France's ratio is around 1:1.7!) is a result of our empty lands, void of people (compared to Europe). Our navy dominates the Mediterranean, 68 more or Galleys are an unbeatable force here. On the other hand our Heavy Navy still lacks the numbers. We would need to build at least 50 more until we can dominate outside the Mediterranean, too. But you will see more in a short time.
Before we get to more numbers, here is some information regarding the Reformation. Calvinism didn't manage to make much of an impression; only Brunswick, Lauenburg and Mecklenburg converted. And Luther's teachings are followed in Great Britain, Sweden, Denmark, East Frisia, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt (which Saxony votes for) and Bohemia. The latter REALLY makes me wonder why they vote for Austria since they are no subject (they do not fight us while Austria does). Oh, and Frankfurt. And I am really curious why they still exist.
This is the Country Screen, sorted by income. We are leading here, no surprise. Thanks to our recent Conquests we now generate more money than Spain and Portugal combined! Only France, Russia and the Bank of Ming can compete with us there. Even Kilwa is in the Top 15. I am surprised how little Austria makes, though. I thought them to generate much more.
If you wonder "Why do you find it strange that Frankfurt still lives?", then there is your answer. Frankfurt managed to amass 9000 Ducats. I have absolutely no idea how - or why they weren't attacked by other nations around them to "redistribute" the money. Or why they didn't use it to amass Mercenaries and expand their territory. Beside, with their income of 6 Ducats per month they would need over 100 years to amass that wealth! Crazy...
Power Projection. Here we rule, of course. It is interesting to note, though, that we are the only nation out there with more than 50 PP, so we are the only ones who gain extra Monarch Points. Portugal and Great Britain mainly get their PP from embargoing us, I think, and Spain from sending Privateers against us. Who knows? I wonder why we miss Timmy, though; they recently won a war against Hindustan if I am not mistaken.
Score comparison. We are at the fourth place, right behind Otto, Russia and France. This means that we managed to overtake Great Britain and China since last time. No big surprises in the list, only the absence of Hindustan and the high score of Anhalt makes me wonder. And the fact that small Oman ranks higher than Hedjaz who controls Mecca and Medina. Next to the monthly gains I noted the current rankings - nobody gains more score than we do. At this rate we might catch up with Otto rather sooner than later and even Russia, but France seems too far above for us to catch up with.
In terms of individual ranks, France barely leads in Admin, followed by us and Russia, of all nations. On 12th place: Holland, on 15th: Hindustan. In Diplomatic Ranking we lead by a two-point margin, followed by Utrecht and Great Britain. France isn't even part of the first 15 nations (Spain is 15th), while we can see many German nations here (Swiss, Saxony, Saxe-Lauenburg, Brunswick, Holland). In Military ranking, France is 1st with a two-point margin towards Russia, then Otto follows. We are on fourth place (5 points behind France), Timur and Hansa are on 7th and 8th place. Spain is on 12th place, after all the losses they suffered against us.
The Religions tab looks normal. Catholicism dominates everything else, but thanks to our influence (we control 107 provinces) and Timur the Sunni Faith still prospers. Thanks to GB there are more Protestants than there are Orthodoxists. The strength of Totemism is either due to many uncolonized provinces or due to none of the Northern American countries westernized so far. I don't know which one is true.
The Holy Roman Empires. Thanks to Austria being lucky their stats are always average or above-average with a 25 year rulership of a 6/6/6. I wonder why Austria still sucked in that game...They got 9 Kings that we know of with a total of 32 ADM power (average: 3.56), 41 DIP power (average: 4.56) and 31 MIL power (average: 3,44). In total, they had 104 power with an average of 11.56 points per ruler! Talk about AI bonus...
...especially if we look at our own monarchs. Starting with 'Uthman (who is, technically, not a random Sultan, not his son...) we had 10 Sultans and 4 Regency councils. They managed to net us a total of 35 ADM points (average: 2.5), 35 DIP points (average: 2.5) and 33 MIL points (average: 2.36) for a total of103 points with an average of 7.36 points per ruler - 4.2 less than weak Austria. Now if I EVER see a player whine and complain in the forums that his game is ruined just because his King doesn't have Uber stats for around 20 years: With 1.6 points below average one can STILL manage to become one of the most powerful countries while starting outside of Europe in a dirt-poor region AND Westernizing during the progress!
Next are current armies. Russia leads, France is second-place, no surprises there. Ming has a force limit of 54 (what a joke, but necessary for keeping the balance). Other than that I can see nothing too surprising here. Spain is not on the list because of a rebellion in Catalunya - they lost many men fighting rebels but will catch up soon enough. Timur had more than 100,000 men when they started their last war against Hindustan - they just threw wave after wave at them.
These are the Force limits. We are only fifth, our lands are void of men. As stated before we have more provinces (107) than available regiments (103). Sweden's army is wiped thanks to Russia's attack; looking at Russia's manpower pool nobody needs to fear Swedish Steel in Europe. Oirat can nearly field Ming's army which is...strange. I miss Japan, though; I expected them to have more power.
But what's most important for us in this game is the Naval situation! Only a strong Navy kept the invaders from our shores while we were much weaker than Europe. Here we reign supreme - but only due to our Galley fleet. France, Otto and Great Britain have more Heavy Ships, Portugal is on par with us. Especially Great Britain - we could never defeat their navy outside the Mediterranean. On the other hand they couldn't beat us inside it due to our National Ideas either...Only an alliance between GB and Naples could endanger our seas, but since Naples is allied to France this is highly unlikely. And we can always build more vessels fast. Ming looks strong on paper, but their navy is completely outdated; our Heavies and half of our Galleys should be strong enough to sink their entire fleet in Open Waters without losses on our side.
The Naval Forcelimits. What makes me wonder is the small fleet of Holland - they have quite a big limit, mostly thanks to their Colonial realm, but next to no navy. Was is sunk some time ago? The same can be said about the Hansa, having no transport ships and nearly no trade navy, either. Genoa's fleet was obviously destroyed during the current war.
A closer look at the income of us and our rivals. As you saw already our income is quite diverse; tax, production, trade and gold are all important parts of it. Other nations are more specialized. France is all about tax (well, duh) and gains nearly nothing from their Colonial Holdings in Mexico. The Ming, on the other hand, are Masters of Trade and Production. Kilwa, all the way down there, is all about the gold and their inflation should be incredibly high right now. Our enemy Portugal is all about Tarrifs and Trade - this is why our blockade made them accept peace so fast during the Timmy war. Spain has the same problem, with 20% of their income coming from America. What you can see is that most rich countries make big money through trading - once again a sign that trade is extremely important in this game (and the reason why I always pick Trade ideas sooner or later). And it shows us why Spain got beatable after we managed to take away their most important Centers of Trade.
Our charts. We are pretty divided if we look at our cultures. The Core pie chart lies - we are 0% overextended so everything is cored. I guess the blue provinces are colonies? As we can see the most production (income?) comes from Grain(giving us many manpower refill events, we are even the leading producer of it!); Fish, Salt, Ivory and Spices are also important. The black part are slaves and it disturbs me that 13,1% of our "production" are slaves. We also have a 27% trade share...the only trading bonus that we have. Unfortunately I cannot abolish Slavery right now or I would have done so long ago.
The coalitions. Beside our small coalition there are two others. Hindustan got targeted by Timur (and I'm surprised that they didn't get one as well!), including Nepal and Shan. Iroquois got a one-man coalition, most likely as a result of a war.
And now we come to our last screenshot (number 290!): The Current Wars. Both France (the third nation is the Ukraine, they lead a Personal Union) and Portgal attacked Makassar, but by now only a French colony was occupied. Qara attacks Aq, which most likely revolted away or were released in one of their peace deals. The War Sweden loses was actually started by them. I guess Sweden is indeed not overpowered. And we don't know/see much about the North American War.
This is my Epilogue. As I said I accept requests if you want to see anything. Either way I will post a Comparison chapter regarding the 1.8. patch changes in about a week. So there is one last "regular" chapter you can be looking forward to. I hope that you had fun and that I could show you how the world is currently looking like in my Tunisia run.
Let us continue with our Epilogue. The last time we were mainly looking at maps of the different regions. This time we will have a look at some numbers and other graphics from our country. So that you can have a look at how good or bad Tunisia's position in the world is. This will also start a countdown (sort of): In one week (on January 5th) I will patch my save file towards 1.8 (and then 1.9) to see how much our position changes through the patch - something that really interests me. And the fact that my Campaign is already over gives us the perfect opportunity to do so. So if you have any unanswered questions left you need to ask me until that day - later I just can't load the 1.7.3 save file anymore.
Our government remains unchanged. We have a 0/0/3 regency council, military focus and 2/2/3 advisors. This gives us 5/5/12 points per month - quite bad for 1630 but still much better than we got in the beginning. So let us go over towards the Diplomacy view:
Beside the fact that we rivalled Austria there should be nothing surprising or new there. GB and Genoa embargo us but Genoa has no power and GB does not compete with us in any valuable provinces. We guarantee our allies Otto and Hedjaz. And thanks to our Exploration ideas we have a buttload of Casus Belli - most of them against small North American tribes though.
Our budget. Inflation is, like always, on the rise. We already put at least 1000 points in there to reduce it from time to time - but most likely a few 1000. Our Army budget is high because of the many reinforcements thanks to our Austrian campaign. Our income would be higher with a neutral stability and 100 Legitimacy, too (you will see this soon) and without our trade malus thanks to that Privateer event. Or it would be higher if we stopped Privateering - but the 3 Monarch Points per month are worth the money.
Our Trade income. We make a nice amount of cash. Especially Alexandria is amazing - 10 Ducats per month even though we compete with Otto in a non-trade port province. The problem is that steering the money from Alexandria towards Sevilla is nearly impossible. We would need to transfer more of the Indian trade towards South Africa and then upwards - founding the East Indian Trade Company would be a good idea for us. Our inland trade bonus is nice for transferring trade from Central Africa towards Tunis or Sevilla.
There is nothing much to say about our technology. Last chapter I showed you that we are 15/19/18, steadily catching up with Europe. Our Ideas are still Exploration/Humanism/Trade mastered and Quality at level 3. So we arrive at our Stability. Our most important rebel problems lie in Africa. Kongo is quite rebellious, especially in the not-converted provinces. What IS interesting, though, is that rebels from Wolof (what we took from Jolof) would defect to Kilwa - a nation on the other side of the continent! Kilwa, go home, you are drunk!
Our Religious tab. Since our Inquisitor died we returned to being impious(?), to make technology cheaper for us. But we accomplished to convert much. It is interesting, though, that we can't even convert the low-tax Coptic provinces in former Ethiopia. I guess, Islamic Nations without piety just suck at conversion thanks to them having no permanent +Missionary decisions, but only temporary, Ruler-based ones.
Our army and navy. Since I began to expand our army we are nearing our Force limit. 93,000 men is a neat amount, the small Force Limit (we have around the same number of provinces that we can build armies - France's ratio is around 1:1.7!) is a result of our empty lands, void of people (compared to Europe). Our navy dominates the Mediterranean, 68 more or Galleys are an unbeatable force here. On the other hand our Heavy Navy still lacks the numbers. We would need to build at least 50 more until we can dominate outside the Mediterranean, too. But you will see more in a short time.
Before we get to more numbers, here is some information regarding the Reformation. Calvinism didn't manage to make much of an impression; only Brunswick, Lauenburg and Mecklenburg converted. And Luther's teachings are followed in Great Britain, Sweden, Denmark, East Frisia, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt (which Saxony votes for) and Bohemia. The latter REALLY makes me wonder why they vote for Austria since they are no subject (they do not fight us while Austria does). Oh, and Frankfurt. And I am really curious why they still exist.
This is the Country Screen, sorted by income. We are leading here, no surprise. Thanks to our recent Conquests we now generate more money than Spain and Portugal combined! Only France, Russia and the Bank of Ming can compete with us there. Even Kilwa is in the Top 15. I am surprised how little Austria makes, though. I thought them to generate much more.
If you wonder "Why do you find it strange that Frankfurt still lives?", then there is your answer. Frankfurt managed to amass 9000 Ducats. I have absolutely no idea how - or why they weren't attacked by other nations around them to "redistribute" the money. Or why they didn't use it to amass Mercenaries and expand their territory. Beside, with their income of 6 Ducats per month they would need over 100 years to amass that wealth! Crazy...
Power Projection. Here we rule, of course. It is interesting to note, though, that we are the only nation out there with more than 50 PP, so we are the only ones who gain extra Monarch Points. Portugal and Great Britain mainly get their PP from embargoing us, I think, and Spain from sending Privateers against us. Who knows? I wonder why we miss Timmy, though; they recently won a war against Hindustan if I am not mistaken.
Score comparison. We are at the fourth place, right behind Otto, Russia and France. This means that we managed to overtake Great Britain and China since last time. No big surprises in the list, only the absence of Hindustan and the high score of Anhalt makes me wonder. And the fact that small Oman ranks higher than Hedjaz who controls Mecca and Medina. Next to the monthly gains I noted the current rankings - nobody gains more score than we do. At this rate we might catch up with Otto rather sooner than later and even Russia, but France seems too far above for us to catch up with.
In terms of individual ranks, France barely leads in Admin, followed by us and Russia, of all nations. On 12th place: Holland, on 15th: Hindustan. In Diplomatic Ranking we lead by a two-point margin, followed by Utrecht and Great Britain. France isn't even part of the first 15 nations (Spain is 15th), while we can see many German nations here (Swiss, Saxony, Saxe-Lauenburg, Brunswick, Holland). In Military ranking, France is 1st with a two-point margin towards Russia, then Otto follows. We are on fourth place (5 points behind France), Timur and Hansa are on 7th and 8th place. Spain is on 12th place, after all the losses they suffered against us.
The Religions tab looks normal. Catholicism dominates everything else, but thanks to our influence (we control 107 provinces) and Timur the Sunni Faith still prospers. Thanks to GB there are more Protestants than there are Orthodoxists. The strength of Totemism is either due to many uncolonized provinces or due to none of the Northern American countries westernized so far. I don't know which one is true.
The Holy Roman Empires. Thanks to Austria being lucky their stats are always average or above-average with a 25 year rulership of a 6/6/6. I wonder why Austria still sucked in that game...They got 9 Kings that we know of with a total of 32 ADM power (average: 3.56), 41 DIP power (average: 4.56) and 31 MIL power (average: 3,44). In total, they had 104 power with an average of 11.56 points per ruler! Talk about AI bonus...
...especially if we look at our own monarchs. Starting with 'Uthman (who is, technically, not a random Sultan, not his son...) we had 10 Sultans and 4 Regency councils. They managed to net us a total of 35 ADM points (average: 2.5), 35 DIP points (average: 2.5) and 33 MIL points (average: 2.36) for a total of103 points with an average of 7.36 points per ruler - 4.2 less than weak Austria. Now if I EVER see a player whine and complain in the forums that his game is ruined just because his King doesn't have Uber stats for around 20 years: With 1.6 points below average one can STILL manage to become one of the most powerful countries while starting outside of Europe in a dirt-poor region AND Westernizing during the progress!
Next are current armies. Russia leads, France is second-place, no surprises there. Ming has a force limit of 54 (what a joke, but necessary for keeping the balance). Other than that I can see nothing too surprising here. Spain is not on the list because of a rebellion in Catalunya - they lost many men fighting rebels but will catch up soon enough. Timur had more than 100,000 men when they started their last war against Hindustan - they just threw wave after wave at them.
These are the Force limits. We are only fifth, our lands are void of men. As stated before we have more provinces (107) than available regiments (103). Sweden's army is wiped thanks to Russia's attack; looking at Russia's manpower pool nobody needs to fear Swedish Steel in Europe. Oirat can nearly field Ming's army which is...strange. I miss Japan, though; I expected them to have more power.
But what's most important for us in this game is the Naval situation! Only a strong Navy kept the invaders from our shores while we were much weaker than Europe. Here we reign supreme - but only due to our Galley fleet. France, Otto and Great Britain have more Heavy Ships, Portugal is on par with us. Especially Great Britain - we could never defeat their navy outside the Mediterranean. On the other hand they couldn't beat us inside it due to our National Ideas either...Only an alliance between GB and Naples could endanger our seas, but since Naples is allied to France this is highly unlikely. And we can always build more vessels fast. Ming looks strong on paper, but their navy is completely outdated; our Heavies and half of our Galleys should be strong enough to sink their entire fleet in Open Waters without losses on our side.
The Naval Forcelimits. What makes me wonder is the small fleet of Holland - they have quite a big limit, mostly thanks to their Colonial realm, but next to no navy. Was is sunk some time ago? The same can be said about the Hansa, having no transport ships and nearly no trade navy, either. Genoa's fleet was obviously destroyed during the current war.
A closer look at the income of us and our rivals. As you saw already our income is quite diverse; tax, production, trade and gold are all important parts of it. Other nations are more specialized. France is all about tax (well, duh) and gains nearly nothing from their Colonial Holdings in Mexico. The Ming, on the other hand, are Masters of Trade and Production. Kilwa, all the way down there, is all about the gold and their inflation should be incredibly high right now. Our enemy Portugal is all about Tarrifs and Trade - this is why our blockade made them accept peace so fast during the Timmy war. Spain has the same problem, with 20% of their income coming from America. What you can see is that most rich countries make big money through trading - once again a sign that trade is extremely important in this game (and the reason why I always pick Trade ideas sooner or later). And it shows us why Spain got beatable after we managed to take away their most important Centers of Trade.
Our charts. We are pretty divided if we look at our cultures. The Core pie chart lies - we are 0% overextended so everything is cored. I guess the blue provinces are colonies? As we can see the most production (income?) comes from Grain(giving us many manpower refill events, we are even the leading producer of it!); Fish, Salt, Ivory and Spices are also important. The black part are slaves and it disturbs me that 13,1% of our "production" are slaves. We also have a 27% trade share...the only trading bonus that we have. Unfortunately I cannot abolish Slavery right now or I would have done so long ago.
The coalitions. Beside our small coalition there are two others. Hindustan got targeted by Timur (and I'm surprised that they didn't get one as well!), including Nepal and Shan. Iroquois got a one-man coalition, most likely as a result of a war.
And now we come to our last screenshot (number 290!): The Current Wars. Both France (the third nation is the Ukraine, they lead a Personal Union) and Portgal attacked Makassar, but by now only a French colony was occupied. Qara attacks Aq, which most likely revolted away or were released in one of their peace deals. The War Sweden loses was actually started by them. I guess Sweden is indeed not overpowered. And we don't know/see much about the North American War.
This is my Epilogue. As I said I accept requests if you want to see anything. Either way I will post a Comparison chapter regarding the 1.8. patch changes in about a week. So there is one last "regular" chapter you can be looking forward to. I hope that you had fun and that I could show you how the world is currently looking like in my Tunisia run.
France and Russia with the two giant armies, comprising the sizes of armies that didn't start to exist until the latter eighteenth century... oh, one of the problems I have with the EUIV war mechanic, but I digress...
Great job in having the largest navy! You make me as a naval enthusiast greatly happy! And per your economy, great job in overturning the old images and beliefs about the wasteland of North Africa. North Africa was the breadbasket of the Roman Empire! And it's lands and ports had been the site of the rise and fall of all the great Mediterranean empires and civilizations. It seems properly fitting that the wealth of the region finally go to the native inhabitants and not to foreign conquerors and plunderers...
Great job in having the largest navy!
You make me as a naval enthusiast greatly happy! And per your economy, great job in overturning the old images and beliefs about the wasteland of North Africa. North Africa was the breadbasket of the Roman Empire! And it's lands and ports had been the site of the rise and fall of all the great Mediterranean empires and civilizations. It seems properly fitting that the wealth of the region finally go to the native inhabitants and not to foreign conquerors and plunderers...
Do you have the most provinces?
And wow, dat navy. I see galleys are key in the Mediterranean.
And wow, dat navy. I see galleys are key in the Mediterranean.
France and Russia with the two giant armies, comprising the sizes of armies that didn't start to exist until the latter eighteenth century... oh, one of the problems I have with the EUIV war mechanic, but I digress...
Great job in having the largest navy!
About tht North African Wastelands....I'd like you to have a look at my most profitable provinces, but I guess telling will do. Regarding Tax income, three of the best 10 provinces have Mali Culture (Timbuktu, Bure, Bambuk), one has Lombard (Mantua). Regarding Production Income, three Mali (Bure, Bambuk, Timbuktu - the first three) and two South African colonies (Cape, Little Caroo). So basically my riches come from Central Africa's Gold mines and South Africa...stupid. I don't really understand this - at these times, Egypt was still an Economic Powerhouse, feeding the Muslim world (and probably the European one, too, that's not my specialty), the North African powers were strong enough to keep Iberia at bay mostly without external help. But these are the rules of the game pre-1.8. This is why I'm curious to find out what happens after I apply the patch.
What is funny, though, is that all my Sunni Provinces look brown - like Shii provinces - in my Province overview. A bug, maybe? Who knows.
Yes, Galleys are key in the Mediterranean. Since I have +20% Galley Combat as a national idea I fight with +120% strength in the Mediterranean - 2 Galleys sink 1 Heavy ship there without problems, but cost only 20 Ducats compared to 50. Without my Rocky Fleet (we have no wood, so our ships are made of rocks) I would not have been able to keep Iberia and France at bay - just compare the Portuguese Wars for Casablanca with the later ones. We are like Great Britain - Naval Supremacy is what keeps us save and prevents invasions of much stronger and bigger armies than we can field. Honestly, I love the Island game - this is why I love to play as Japan. One of my best EU3 games was to make the whole Pacific(!) my personal Ocean, controlling everything from Alaska to Bolivia, from Kamchatka to Indochina. And every Island in-between.
In regard of the Province count: I need to look it up. We have much more than France or Otto (France is around 70, Otto at 60), probably more than Timur (I would guess they have around 50-60 provinces, since each of them is very big) and maybe even more than Russia. I will post a picture as soon as I found out. And here, too, I wonder how the province count will change after I apply the 1.8. patch.
I don't expect video games, even those that attempt to be historical, to be historically accurate! It's like with CK2. All those Muslim factions with a crescent moon and star is anachronistic. The crescent moon and star iconography only entered Islamic usage after the capture of Constantinople, since those were the actual symbols of the city of Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire! (And the US political labeling in Victoria II is the exact opposite of what it should be...)
Oh well. But at least they have Timbuktu right though. Salt should be more highly priced...
It's like with CK2. All those Muslim factions with a crescent moon and star is anachronistic. The crescent moon and star iconography only entered Islamic usage after the capture of Constantinople, since those were the actual symbols of the city of Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire! (And the US political labeling in Victoria II is the exact opposite of what it should be...)Oh well. But at least they have Timbuktu right though. Salt should be more highly priced...
No, they do not. The income from Timbuktu comes mostly from the tax. Base 14 and ~20.5 production hints at a very bad Salt price, especially since production mainly depends on tax in this game (Why. Paradox, make the low-tax provinces even more worthless? Owning London alone is like owning all of Greece!). On the other hand, my province in Cairo manages to get 27.5 ducats out of spices while only having 12 base tax. I'd need to look at other factors (manufactories, other buildings - there are some in Cairo, but maybe not in Timbuktu, I never had the points to spare thanks to my Sultans...) for a definite answer, though.
I don't expect video games, even those that attempt to be historical, to be historically accurate!
Oh well. But at least they have Timbuktu right though. Salt should be more highly priced...
I thought the Moon and Star were Turkish in nature and were also partly used by the Seljuk Sultanate?
Also, while being anachronistic, the Crescent and the Star are the most recognisable Muslim symbols, which is why it's not entirely bad that they're used IMHO.
I have two answers. First, about the Salt: It's worthless, basically. Its base prize is 2 Ducats and its current prize 2.5 Ducats. Slaves are worth 4 Ducats, Spices are worth 5 Ducats, Chinaware is worth 5 Ducats. Even Fish and Naval Supplies are worth more! I have a Manufactory in Timbuktu and the first two Production buildings - and this says more than enough about the "worth" of Salt in my game.
Second, about the biggest nations: As I suspected I am only second place. Russia has 110 provinces and thus three more than I have. Third is Timur with 80. I might post a screenshot with the actual charts of the most important(or biggest) nations, but not today.
Second, about the biggest nations: As I suspected I am only second place. Russia has 110 provinces and thus three more than I have. Third is Timur with 80. I might post a screenshot with the actual charts of the most important(or biggest) nations, but not today.
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